


Hibiki

by MsTrick



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bad Flirting, Bi-Curiosity, Bisexuality, Blow Jobs, Boys Kissing, Canon Compliant, Dimension Travel, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut, Hand Jobs, Locker Room, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-04-06 15:52:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19065787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsTrick/pseuds/MsTrick
Summary: The dimension-hopping fairy godmother high school AU no one asked for. Where Sombra needs teenaged Jack and Gabriel to figure out their goddamn feelings in order for her to get back to her own reality.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hibiki (響き)
> 
> Noun  
> 1\. echo; reverberation  
> 2\. sound (esp. the distinctive sound of an object or activity, e.g. rain, gun, gallop, drum); noise  
> 3\. quality of a sound (e.g. a fine phrase, clear voice, resonant bell); feeling of a sound; emotion or feeling inspired by something heard or read

Gabriel watched the coil of cigarette smoke unfurl into the half-naked treetops, picturing the luxury and gore that could go into their production of _Macbeth_.

It had been announced as this year's school play just that morning, and though casting was always open call, Gabriel was gleefully determined to get the lead again. It was his senior year and there was no more glorious role to mark the occasion than the mad would-be king. 

The midday clouds vaguely threatened rain. Stamping out his cigarette, Gabriel peeked around the tree trunk to where the squat school buildings sat like a mismatched array of cakes. 

A noise erupted out of the blank space next to him, a combination of a crack and a squelch. Gabriel jumped, expecting a branch to come crashing down. Try as they might, his eyes could not comprehend what they were seeing. Had Genji laced his cigarettes with LSD or something? 

A handful of blue light whirled in figure eights, crackling with purple pixels that grew bigger and bigger until they appeared to burst. The flash was blinding. 

When his eyes regained the ability to function, Gabriel found a woman crumpled on her knees in the grass in front of him. Violent shivers wracked her slim frame despite the strange coat she was wearing. 

"Hello? You okay?"

Her gaze snapped to his and she jerked backwards in terror. 

He took a step back and raised his empty palms. 

"It's okay, Miss Hallucination. Not going to hurt you. Just going to call an ambulance," he said, pulling out his phone. 

“Gabriel?” She croaked out.

He froze in shock.

Sombra concentrated on the man in front of her, the haze clearing from her vision. 

It was Gabriel Reyes alright, but he couldn't have been more than 18. He had the same haircut and beard as his official photo from the SEP files. He was in tight, dark jeans, combat boots and a black leather jacket with spikes crowning the shoulders. The outfit, combined with the black eyeliner and silver lip ring, wrung a sudden laugh out of her. It was all so adolescent Reaper.

"Yeah, I'm calling an ambulance."

"No! No, I'm fine. Just some scratches and bruises."

She staggered to her feet and brushed herself off. True to her word, she didn't appear physically hurt. Even her agitation was lessening. Her unusual clothes gave him pause. With its high collar and sleek purple accents,her coat looked like something right out of  _Blade Runner_. 

"Sweet outfit. Are you cosplaying as someone?"

Instead of answering, she clawed her long fingernails through the air, summoning a series of holographic hexagonal keys and then a complicated chart of some sort. 

"Holy shit!" Gabriel yelled. 

"Ah, there you are." She tapped a segment of the chart and it expanded into a web of hexagonal windows. "Dimension Gamma-673764. Let's see. Year 2029. Status of Omnic development... Birthplace of... Okay, that's the same... That's not. Hm. What a disgustingly suburban time and place."

"How are you doing that? That's... witchcraft. Or Tony Stark level stuff," Gabriel said, staring in awe at the windows glowing in midair. 

"You won't see any tech like this for another decade."

The woman glanced over at him with a smirk and he realized her eyes gleamed an inhuman purple. With a sweep of her hand, the holograms vanished. 

"Tech?" Gabriel repeated.

"Arthur C. Clarke's third law?"

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," Gabriel recited. 

"A literature nerd in every dimension," she laughed. 

"I think I'm going to go ahead and call that ambulance."

"The novel that made you fall in love with Gothic lit was  _The Mysteries of Udolpho_ by Ann Radcliffe, but because you thought people would laugh at the romantic plot, you tell everyone it was Edgar Allan Poe."

A chill shot down Gabriel's spine. He clenched his cold hands into fists to keep them from shaking.

"How do you..."

“A version of you in a different dimension told me that revealing I knew this secret would be a time-saver for getting you to believe me and it does tend to work. I've had to explain this shit so many times, any shortcut is gold."

“You’re…telling me you’re from an alternate reality and that is the reason you know something no one -- and I mean  _no one_ \-- knows about me?"

"Yep. My name is Sombra. I'm trying to get back to my proper dimension."

Gabriel's mouth open and closed a few times as he tried to realign his entire definition of what was possible and impossible.

“Isn't that hard?" He finally asked. "Aren't there infinite dimensions?"

“Well, something approaching infinite but not actually infinite." She sighed and impatiently rushed through the rest of her explanation. "Someone makes a decision and two dimensions are created, one where you picked A, the other where you picked B. Except not all people and not all decisions are important or impactful enough to actually split a dimension into two distinct realities. Señora So-and-So making dinner isn’t creating universes when she chooses chicken or fish. Sure, the choice creates two paths but they converge again so quickly, it doesn’t matter."

"Right..."

"However, there are some people who will not only make a decision impactful enough to split dimensions, they will do it in almost every dimension they exist in."

“Like JFK?”

“Exactly. He either prevents or causes nuclear war. He either gets assassinated or… Well, I won’t bore you with what he does if he doesn’t, but trust me, it changes things.”

Sombra grinned as realization spread across Gabriel’s face. 

"I’m…No way I'm one of those people."

“9 dimensions out of 10, yeah. You and Jack both are. Where is he, by the way? It'd be easier if I only had to explain all this once."

"Who's Jack?"

"Uh. Jack Morrison?"

"I don't think I know a--oh wait, yes, I do. Blond guy on the football team. Think he's a junior."

Sombra stared at him long enough to make Gabriel uncomfortable. 

"Does he know who _you_ are?" She asked.

"No idea. He might, if he has any taste in the arts. I was the lead in the musical last year."

"Huh. I didn't see that coming."

"What? The performing?"

"Oh, Dios mío, no. Every goddamn version of you is way too into costumes. But you…haven't been inexplicably drawn to Jack? You're not fucking or friends or mortal enemies or anything?"

“Woah, woah, woah, hang on. I’m not gay.”

“No, you’re bisexual.”

“No, I’m definitely…”

Sombra raised her eyebrows at him.

“Okay, so maybe I’m a tiny bit curious…”

Sombra rolled her eyes.

"...but  _please_ , some cornfed white boy jock? Not my type."

“Gabi, there’s a dimension where the two of you are married and own a flower shop. There’s a dimension where you've murdered dozens of people in his name. There’s one where you saved the human race because he wanted you to. There’s one where he’s blind and you’re in a coma and you still managed to find each other. In over 150 dimensions, I have NEVER met a version of you that isn't mixed up with Jack Morrison on a very personal level.”

Gabriel was speechless for a minute, his brain scrambling to process. 

“So, this is like…a soulmate thing?” He asked, unable to believe such a question was seriously coming out of his mouth. 

“Not quite that romantic. Sure, you end up married a lot of the time, but you end up trying to murder each other a lot too. Like where I’m from. Getting revenge on him is your entire shtick. So, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, but you always alter the course of each other’s lives and 90% of the time, you doing so also impacts the course of the world."

“Okay..." Gabriel let out a laugh bordering on hysterical. "I've never really felt any kind of psychic pull to the guy though. I mean, I think I've only even seen him about three times. Our school is huge. Maybe this is one of those rare dimensions where we don't meet up and don't change anything?" 

“Yeah, not acceptable."

"What? Why not?"

"The only way for me to safely move between dimensions is to be present at the moment a new fork is created, because in that moment, all the gates open. And the absolute easiest way to be present at the time of a world-altering decision has been to lurk around you two pendejos."

"Wouldn't a president or prime minister be better?"

"I thought so at first, too. But you would be astounded at how little impact most elected officials have."

"Yeah, but, probably more than me? I'm a senior in high school, not exactly global news here."

"Well, all I have to do is wait for the moment you and Jack become friends or whatever. That's bound to set something off."

"Because whether or not we become friends is...important enough to change the course of the world? Wouldn't it be just as impactful if we _didn't_ become friends then?"

"Yes. But pinpointing the exact moment you fail to become friends is a lot harder." 

A harsh noise rang across the campus, reaching them on the far side of the soccer field. 

"That's the lunch bell," Gabriel supplied, feeling dumb even as he said it.

How did the daily lunch bell seem more unreal than the conversation he'd just had? The very grass under his boots seemed fake. Or too real. His head swam. The sky seemed precariously placed overhead, like it might slip off and shatter at any moment. 

He somehow found himself at a table in the cafeteria, untouched french fries in front of him. His mind only managed to refocus on the present when he heard Sombra declare she'd spotted Jack Morrison. 

He was laughing brightly with a large group of friends, some of whom Sombra could identify. Reinhardt Wilhelm. Ana Amari. Strange to see these legends younger than her. To say nothing of Gabriel fidgeting at her side. 

"Go talk to him," she ordered. 

"Are you nuts?" Gabriel hissed. "I can't just waltz up to a table of kids as popular as that and say  _Wanna be my friend?_ I'd get laughed out of the room. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not exactly a people person."

"Ain't that the truth," she grumbled. 

Slurping a can of Coke, Sombra observed Jack from across the rowdy canteen and snickered. Jack Morrison at 17 was just...so typical. A cliché of a high school heartthrob. Blond and blue eyed, perfect teeth, muscles. The back of his red, white and navy varsity jacket bore his last name in block letters and, of course, the number 76. 

But Sombra had seen what lay beneath that pretty all-American stereotype.

This was a man who had beaten a gangster to death with a flaming pinata in her world. A man who became a serial killer in a hockey mask in another dimension. A man who, for all his shining morality, fell in love with Gabriel Reyes and his murky ethics every damn time.

Jack Morrison was everyone's golden boy until he snapped. She always liked him better after his pedestal broke. He was far more interesting when he was scarred and playing by his own rules. Or Gabe's rules, depending. 

Clearly, that phase of his life was a while off in this reality. 

Jack and his friends gathered their things before dumping their garbage in the bins and returning their plastic trays. As they crossed to the exit, Jack slung his arm over the shoulders of a boy with dark hair and planted a kiss on his cheek. Sombra recognized the boy's face but couldn't be bothered to try and recall his name.

"If he has a boyfriend, then we're probably not going to-- I mean, him and I will just be friends, I guess. We won't be, like, physical soulmates here," Gabriel stammered. 

Sombra chuckled. In plenty of dimensions, Jack and Gabriel dated, fucked or even married other people. It didn't seem to make too much of a difference in the long run, so she'd long stopped taking notes on them. 

As if on cue, Jack glanced over his shoulder. 

Despite the busyness and size of the room, his gaze went straight to Gabriel. He jerked in surprise to find Gabriel already staring at him and turned away, a blush blooming across the back of his neck.

Gabriel gaped, widened eyes made even wider by the eyeliner. Her chin resting in her hand, Sombra gave him a smug smile.

"Okay, but that's-- He was probably looking at your weird outfit." 

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

"I get the feeling this dimension is going to be fun," she purred.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cranked this out in a delirious Sunday haze. Eyes are literally unfocused I'm so sleepy, so sorry if quality is all over the damn place ╮(╯▽╰)╭
> 
> PS. If you want to read that flower shop au, hit up [Honeysuckle and Ivy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15133505/chapters/35092271) by Thighz.


	2. Chapter 2

No one had to tell Jack Morrison he was a high school cliché.

He knew. 

He was the blond-haired, blue-eyed quarterback with the secret crush on the antisocial goth kid. Of course, he knew. It was the oldest trope in the book. Some days, Jack felt like his one saving grace was that he was gay. Otherwise, he'd be totally subsumed by the all-American golden boy stereotype they'd plastered over his face. You catch a ball a few times, don't act arrogant about it and suddenly you're a god.

At least he wasn’t dating a cheerleader.

Jack twirled a pen between his fingers and tried to concentrate, but his mind kept wandering away from calculus and back to the question of why Gabriel Reyes had been staring at him at lunch. 

His stomach was still doing little pancake flips over it, even though it was probably a fluke. And even if it wasn't, it didn't matter, because Jack had a boyfriend and even if by some miracle Gabriel did like guys and actually liked Jack, he'd been with Vincent for five months and things were pretty good and you couldn't just break up with someone for no reason. Right? 

Jack was getting ahead of himself. Way too far ahead. 

It was just a coincidental scrap of eye contact. It didn't mean anything. 

Besides, the odds of a guy like Gabriel being into a guy like him were microscopic. Three years of spying on Gabriel from across crowded rooms had given Jack a solid idea of how trite Gabriel found the whole suburban high school ecosystem, which Jack was an entrenched part of. Plenty of kids acted aloof, but Gabriel genuinely didn't seem concerned with gossip or college application stress or what others thought about him.

Jack couldn't help a small, infatuated sigh. 

Gabriel Reyes was so cool.

His thighs filled out those jeans like black denim had been invented just to show them off. He'd already mastered the art of facial hair with his neatly maintained mustache and goatee. Whenever Jack tried to grow a beard, it came in all patchy. Jack had less-than-innocently wondered on more than one occasion what it would be like to kiss a man with facial hair like that. 

But that was nothing next to the downright embarrassing reaction he'd had last winter, when Gabriel returned from Christmas break with that silver lip ring. He'd stood in a bathroom stall for five minutes, making a very solid argument to his dick about why they couldn't jerk off in school and to please calm down until they got home.

The bell snapped Jack back to reality.

Right. Don't fail Calculus. Already have a boyfriend. Cliché crush is cliché. Need to grab history textbook.

The hallways were the usual heave and flow, chatter and tears, tension and laughter, all overlaid by the perpetual mist of exhaustion that clung to teenagers. 

Vincent was leaning next to Jack's locker. His serious expression lightened as Jack approached. Guilty over the direction of his daydreams, Jack gave him a quick peck on the lips before turning to input his combination. He fumbled to swap out the books in his backpack. Vincent deserved better than this.

"What's the rush?" Vincent asked."Ms. Adawe's not going to demerit you if you're late. She loves you."

"Wish people wouldn't make excuses for me."

"Well, that's what you get for being handsome and athletic and amiable. It's not exactly the worst problem to have."

"Right. What have I got to complain about?" Jack asked, a bitter edge to his words. 

" _Do_ you have something to complain about? Because I'm not sure where this attitude's coming from."

"Sorry." Jack sighed. "Weird day."

"Hey, Morrison," came a voice behind him. 

Jack slammed his locker closed, turned around and froze. A blush exploded across his face. 

Gabriel Reyes was talking to him. 

Gabriel Reyes was  talking to him?

"Uh, hi," was all Jack's brain could come up with.

It was too busy yelling at him to not look at the temptation that was Gabriel's bottom lip.  Jack's heart beat hot and fast. He felt like he was going to choke on it. That was _not_ the reaction he should be having to being stared at in silence by a stranger. 

There was no sign of the woman Gabriel had been with in the cafeteria. Jack wondered if they were dating. Wouldn't it be just Jack's luck if Gabriel was only into older women? 

Kids pushed by, giving them strange looks.  Vincent opened his mouth, but Gabriel finally remembered he'd initiated a conversation. 

"I'm Gabriel."

"I know," Jack answered, too quickly. 

"Right. Wait. You do?"

"You were the lead in the musical last year. Your face was on all the posters."

"It was  _The Phantom of the Opera_. I was in a mask..."

"I mean, I also saw it. The musical."

"Good. I mean, I'm glad."

"You're glad?"

"Yes." Gabriel floundered for a few seconds. "Have you thought about trying out for the play this year? It's _Macbeth_."

"Well, I--I would, but I can't act for shit."

"That's fine! You wouldn't need to act."

"I...wouldn't need to act? In a theater group?"

"Well, okay, you might. A little. But it would be fine even if you were bad, because your face is...good. It's a good face."

"...Thank you. Uh. You have a good face too."

"...Thank you."

Another sumo wrestler sized pause wedged itself between them. 

"I think my football schedule might conflict with--"

"Yeah, you're probably busy--"

"And then, with basketball season--"

"Yeah, no--"

"Not that I wouldn't. I mean, it's nice of you to offer--"

"Yeah, it's fine. You go enjoy your...sports."

Jack cocked his head at the shift in Gabriel's tone. 

"I take it you don't like sports?"

"I mean," Gabriel scoffed. "Team sports are great for distracting the masses and keeping natural tribal tendencies from turning into wars."

"And that's bad?" 

"It's a crude facsimile of real emotional stakes. People treat it like actual life or death."

"But musicals are real?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow. 

"Art aims to express crucial truths of the human experience."

"Isn't tribal competitiveness part of the human experience?  A football game is just as much theater as a play. Only difference is you don't know the ending. Which I think makes it more interesting."

An intrigued gleam came into Gabriel's eyes.

"...Huh. Thought jocks were supposed to be dumb."

Despite the backhandedness of the compliment, a corner of Jack's mouth tipped up.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Vincent asked, frowning at Gabriel. 

"Awkwardly hitting on him, what does it look like?" Gabriel snapped. 

Jack burst out laughing. 

"Well, it--I mean, it definitely looks like you're awkwardly hitting on me," he said. 

“Hi? I’m his boyfriend," Vincent huffed. 

"That's fine. I'm hitting on him as a friend."

"What?" Jack asked, grinning at the absurdity of the whole situation.

"Were you told to flirt with a football player on a dare or something?" Vincent asked.

Jack's smile dimmed. Some sort of prank did seem the most likely explanation.

"Or maybe I just wanted to talk to him?" Gabriel retorted. "The theater group's always looking for new people."

"And you think Jack would fit in with that guy who always wears a cowboy hat and that kid with green hair? He already said he's not interested."

"Vince, chill. I'm sure he doesn't mean anything bad," Jack said, still curious why today of all days Gabriel had realized he existed.

"I mean, I _might_ ," Gabriel said with a smirk.

And there went Jack's heart again, thumping like a rabbit chased by dogs. He could feel his cheeks turning red.

"We have class," Vincent said, taking Jack's hand and tugging him down the hallway.

"It was, uh, nice meeting you, Gabriel," Jack stammered over his shoulder.

Instead of heading straight to Adawe's classroom though, Vincent led him into the boys bathroom, which was fortunately empty. 

"What was that?" Vincent demanded.

"I have no idea," Jack said, unable to suppress another smile.

"Really? Because I felt an awful lot like a third wheel back there. Like, at no point, did you try to stop him flirting with you."

"I just found the whole thing funny."

"You hate when people hit on you. You complain all the time about how people see you as this stereotype."

"Well, yeah, but...I don't know. I just thought he was funny. Sorry if it hurt your feelings."

Vincent let out a heavy sigh and turned to face the mirror, that serious expression stealing over his face again.

"Look, Jack, I've been thinking. I don't think this is working out."

Jack's mouth actually dropped open. The floor beneath him seemed to tilt even as he was rooted to it, unable to move.

"What? Are you breaking up with me? In the bathroom, two minutes before class?"

"Look, sorry about the timing, but if this isn't going anywhere, what's the point of wasting time?"

"All because someone else hit on me?"

"It's not just that. You've always been sort of, I don't know, not fully into this relationship. That's what it feels like anyway, like this is nice but not great? I mean, tell me if I'm wrong." 

Jack's whole body twisted into cold knots. It took him a long minute to unscramble his thoughts and remember how to form words.

"I do really like you, Vince. I like what we have..."

"But you're not in love with me."

"Well, I don't know." Jack shuffled, embarrassed. "I mean, we have a lot of fun together."

"Yeah, we do." Vincent sighed again. "I'm sorry, but that's just not really enough for me. You're a good guy, but I need something less shallow."

Jack blinked fast. He felt like he'd been slapped. A lump formed in his throat.

"I'll see you around, okay?" Vincent said, fiddling with the straps of his backpack. "I really hope we can be friends someday."

And then Jack was alone, shellshocked and mortified.

The door opened behind him and he quickly ducked into a stall, locking the door with shaking fingers. He swallowed down his tears, trying not to make any noise. The word _shallow_  echoed, picking up in speed and volume as it bounced around inside his skull. That low, constant buzz of anxiety in his veins vaulted up by several hundred volts. A panic attack crept over him like the tide.

There was no way in hell he was making it to history class now.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aw, poor Jack. If only there was someone who could make you feel better ๑乛◡乛๑


	3. Chapter 3

It took Jack all of a minute to glom onto the realization that the boys bathroom was a terrible place to have his mental breakdown. It smelled somewhere between a sewer and a zoo enclosure. And the cheap tiles amplified every sound, so unless he intended to execute a panic attack in perfect silence, not a good choice.

The hallway was empty, all the classrooms settling into the next period. Jack tried not to look guilty as he exited the building and made a beeline for the gymnasium. He'd never cut class before.

Not like it mattered. They'd let him get away with it, forgive him for an indiscretion that would probably earn someone like Gabriel or Jesse McCree weeks of detention. He wondered what the school would do if he suddenly quit the football team, left them floundering for the rest of the season. Even the thought of letting that many people down made his pulse gallop. It wasn't in him to do that.

Though apparently he wasn't above disappointing individuals. Vincent's 'but you don't love me' stuck uncomfortably in Jack's brain. Was it wrong to date someone for fun even if you didn't think you'd be together forever? Did that really make him shallow? He didn't know.

Jack slammed open the doors to the gym's atrium and stalked up the broad stairs, past the team's locker room and out onto the thin balcony overlooking the basketball court, where the school news filmed games. He slumped into a seat, buried his face in his hands and prepared to feel as sorry for himself as humanly possible, when female laughter echoed through the gym.

Peering over the banister, Jack froze in surprise at Gabriel's appearance for the second time that day.

The purple-haired woman from lunch was in _stitches_. She was laughing so hard, she could barely walk, and staggered after Gabriel, clutching her stomach.

Jack must have entered the building mere minutes behind them.

The basketball under Gabriel's arm piqued Jack's curiosity. If Gabriel was cutting class, doubtless he'd be gallivanting off-campus somewhere. He probably had a free period, one of the many luxuries of being a senior. After Gabriel's denunciation of team sports, Jack never would have expected him to spend it in the gym.

"Oh my god, you can stop now!" Gabriel barked, his voice carrying easily up to where Jack was hidden.

" _You have a good face,_ " Sombra gasped, wiping at her tears. " _Dios fucking mío._ "

"Well, at least I pinpointed the exact moment when Jack and I failed to become friends," Gabriel groaned. "Shouldn't that have opened your fork or whatever?"

While Jack repeated that sentence in his head and failed to make any kind of sense out of it, the woman's giggles finally died down. She clawed at thin air, dragging a purple-edged hologram into existence and studying it. Jack blinked, unsure what he was seeing.

"Nope, no forks yet," she said, snapping the window closed. "So, you have at least one more chance to woo him with your sparkling eloquence."

"Ugghhhh. How did Jack and I get together in your world?"

"You met in a highly classified military program. And then stewed for several decades. You might still be stuck in the mutual pining phase."

"So, that's off the table. Probably."

"I'm not giving you decades, amigo."

He chucked the basketball at her and she caught it before it hit her face.

"Why don't you just explain things to him like you did to me?" Gabriel demanded, shrugging off his leather jacket. "If you tell him he has to go on a date with me because your fate rests on it, then no way he'd say no."

"Because this is way more fun," she sniggered. "And after that last dimension, I need a break."

"Gonna explain that? You looked pretty messed up when I found you."

She held the ball with an intense grip, appearing uncomfortable for the first time.

"Let's just say the version of you I met there wasn't the nicest."

"I stole your lunch money?"

"You nearly tore out and devoured my soul."

Gabriel paused halfway through removing his black t-shirt.

“Now, you're just making shit up.”

"You were a wraith creature of some sort. Jack was a vampire, I think. Lots of blood."

"...like an actual vampire?"

"I wasn't as surprised as I thought I'd be. You both have a...weird relationship with death. You're pretty bad at just dying and staying dead. You especially. So, of course there'd be a world where you both become immortal undead creatures. Thus, after escaping your clutches there, I deserve a bit of downtime. And your attempts at seduction are quality entertainment."

Either they were lunatics with shared hallucinations or they were rehearsing for a very peculiar play. But at that point, Jack wouldn't have cared if they were Martians because Gabriel was down to a white tanktop that clung to his every goddamn contour. This was easily the most amount of Gabriel's skin he'd ever seen and Jack could just about make out the dark shapes of his nipples beneath the thin fabric and Jack’s throat had suddenly gone very dry.

Sombra tossed him the ball back. Gabriel dribbled and approached the basket with far more fluidity than should have been possible in skintight jeans and combat boots.

Jack's brain kept trying to refocus on analyzing the bizarre conversation below and his heart kept trying to remind him that he was supposed to be Very Sad, but his body was well and thoroughly distracted. He was half-hard just watching the way Gabriel's biceps and shoulders flexed, imagining what they would feel like under his hands.

"So, how do we know each other?" Gabriel asked, sinking his shot. "In your dimension, I mean."

"Work," Sombra said evasively. "That's how we meet in most timelines."

"Most?"

When she didn't answer right away, Gabriel glanced at her and was caught off-guard by the soft expression on her face. There was a vulnerable sort of fondness that made him think. Sombra was an attractive girl, all curves and sass, definitely his type. He studied the ball in his hands, turning it over and over.

“Um, do we ever….?”

She raised an eyebrow at him, the shy affection vanishing into jeering amusement.

“Fuck?”

“Yeah,” he mumbled, flushing.

“Well, in my world, you're twice my age and here, you're about half it, so...ew. But, sometimes, yes, we date or fuck. It never works out."

"Are you usually younger than me?"

"Yeah, by twenty or thirty years on average. This dimension's me is attending first grade in Mexico City."

"So? How else do we meet?"

"Sometimes you adopt me."

"I... What?"

"Sometimes, it's you and Jack who adopt me. That's not what happened in my reality though. You're more of a friend, mentor type, when you're not assassinating your former colleagues."

Gabriel didn't know how to respond to any of that. He spent a minute staring into space, trying to picture being _anyone's_ father.

"It's nice," Sombra blurted into the silence. "Those dimensions. You're a good dad."

A tender beat went by between the two of them. Unseen, Jack smiled.

"What about your birth parents?" Gabriel asked.

She shook her head.

"In practically every world I've seen, one way or another, I'm orphaned before the age of ten."

"I'm sorry."

"It actually makes me feel a little better. Like, it wasn't me drawing the short straw; it's simply an inevitable part of existing as an Olivia Colomar."

Gabriel began dribbling the ball again, approaching the net in a practiced lay up. Jack huffed out a laugh as Gabriel sank another basket. He had to have been on a team in middle school or something. Jack wondered what had turned Gabriel off playing.

"How exactly did you end up in the wrong dimension anyway?" Gabriel asked.

"I'm not explaining this again," she groaned, rubbing her eyes. "I've told this to, like, 43 versions of you already."

"Well, if you're planning on sticking around and being annoying, I'd like to know. Otherwise, I'm going to go full hermit."

"Ugh. Fine. A woman in my dimension called Lena got caught in a chronological experiment gone wrong and, with some innovative tech, ended up able to move forward and backwards through time."

"Sure, time travel. Why the hell not?" Gabriel groused.

"Like I said, timelines split, so Lena would periodically end up in other dimensions when she blinked through time, but she always ended up back in her proper one. We thought we could use this to our advantage, access hundreds of dimensions' resources. But, turns out that hacking quantum technology with uncooperative scientists isn't as straightforward as it sounds."

"Uncooperative?"

"Eh, well, the organization I work with may have kidnapped Lena."

Gabriel stopped bouncing the ball and gaped at her.

"I'm sorry. Remind me again why I should be helping you? You're part of a terrorist group?"

"So are you."

"Not _me_ me!"

"It doesn't matter if you want to or not," she said with a shrug. "You'll end up helping me anyway."

"What do you mean?"

A smirk spread over her lips.

"Tell me you haven't been thinking about Jack Morrison nonstop since you talked to him."

Gabriel suppressed a smile as he remembered the flint of ice in those blue eyes when Jack challenged him, the easy way he laughed, the richness of his voice.

"I haven't been thinking about him," Gabriel answered breezily.

"I don't believe you."

"I don't care," he snapped. "And it doesn't matter. No way I'm helping you get back to your dimension just so you can figure out how to attack and raid other ones. So, that means, no more interacting with Jack. If we're not in each other's lives, the odds of us making timeline-splitting decisions is a lot lower, right?"

Sombra swore at him.

As their argument continued, Jack's heart went back into a bucket of ice.

Of course, there would be some cosmic, justifiable reason for Gabriel to avoid him forever. If any part of that weirdo conversation was true, then Jack should stay away from Gabriel as well. An echo of an ache gripped Jack, oddly familiar though he'd never felt anything like it. The dull pain of putting the greater good ahead of their needs and desires. As though he and Gabriel had kept away from each other a million times before. As though this was just how their story went.

Maybe it was.

Jack hoped not. He hoped somewhere out there, he and Gabriel were happy and together. Maybe in one of those worlds where they adopted Olivia and she presumably didn't grow up to be a dimension-hacking terrorist. If that world existed, then they needed to keep it safe. And if that meant not getting to be with Gabriel in this world...well, it wasn't like Jack had been having a good day anyway.

Destiny's teeth in the back of his neck, Jack crept back out to the hall, ready to face the rest of his life with grim determination.


	4. Chapter 4

Sombra had gone from verbose fury to silent sulking, though she was clearly itching to say something more.

Gabriel ignored her all the way from the gym to Death Blossom, which was what he’d dubbed the tree he smoked by on the far side of the soccer pitch. As was the way with human brains, declaring he was never going to speak to Jack again had multiplied his urge to do so by several thousand. In the distance, the bell signaled the end of the school day. 

Reaching overhead, he fished the packet of cigarettes and the lighter from the knot in Death Blossom’s trunk. No one except a very buzzed squirrel had ever found them there.

“Do you know why I appeared right in front of you?” Sombra finally asked.

“Punishment for my sins in a past life?”

She glared at him. He snicked the lighter and lit the cigarette dangling from his mouth.

“It wasn’t karma and it wasn’t coincidence,” she said, waving awake the smoke. “ _You_ gave me a tether. I was going to just jump in and hack my way to what I needed, but you suggested I set my coordinates to automatically sync to your spiritual signature.”

“Because I have self-loathing issues?”

“Because you wanted me to be able to find you in every dimension. You — he, my Gabriel figured every version of him would want to help me.”

“Except for the vampire wraith demon.”

“Well, can’t blame him for not seeing that coming. But my point is, he’s not heartless or evil."

"Right. It's _lighthearted_ kidnapping."

"Look, it's not like we’re bad guys in a good world. You don’t understand what things are like where I’m from.” Sombra gestured out at the calm school grounds. “Compared to this, it’s post-apocalyptic. A war wiped hundreds of thousands of people off the face of the planet. Now, cartels and gangs and government organizations that act like cartels and gangs run everything. There’s zero stability anywhere. Gabriel and I are working with Talon for the time being, but the two of us have different goals. In our own ways, we’re trying to make the world a little better for everyone.”

“And I’m killing people to do that? Your world hasn’t seen enough death?”

“Sometimes that’s how it goes. You're not naive enough to think otherwise, even at your age.”

“You really think your Gabriel killing his Jack would make your world better?”

Sombra hesitated. Gabriel leaned against his tree and took another drag.

“That’s…more of a personal vendetta," she admitted. "Jack wronged my Gabriel, I think, left him in a lot of physical pain.”

“And revenge is just the smartest thing ever.” Smoke escaped Gabriel’s mouth as he let out a dry laugh, the sight strangely familiar to Sombra. “Jesus. At this point, I’m going to help you get back just so you can tell that other me to get his fucking head out of his ass.”

“You have no idea what he’s gone through. What any of us have been through.”

“Still doesn’t make murder the answer.”

Sombra was reminded of Baptiste’s stunt with Sainclair, saving the life of that greedy pig and using it as leverage to make others’ lives better. Anyone else would have shot him and no one would have complained about it. Reaper especially had little patience for slow-footed justice. He'd given up on alternative solutions.

She sighed, sad, wishing her world hadn’t crushed this fiery ambition to do good from him. Because at one point, Reaper must have felt like thishigh school version of himself. He’d let the government chew him up and spit him back out, genetically altered, in order to put his life on the line over and over and over and over again, to save the world, to then improve the world he’d saved. A person didn’t do that without a lunatic type of belief that things could get better.

There was a commotion of some sort on the other side of the pitch, a group of boys in gym gear hauling equipment and bags, led by two huffing coaches. Sure enough, Jack's blond head was visible in the rowdy group, a sack of footballs over his shoulder.

Gabriel laughed again, shaking his head.

"And here's the football team. What, did the universe schedule to have their field repainted today? Did talking to Jack initiate some sort of cosmic magnet or something?"

"Some things are inevitable," Sombra murmured, trying not to think of the Omnic Crisis likely looming on this timeline's horizon.

"Do we always meet?" Gabriel asked, stamping out the cigarette. "Is that inevitable too?"

"Pretty much. There's always a few outliers."

"I'm glad to hear that," he said, meaning it.

Sombra gave him a look of startled happiness, and Gabriel saw in a flash exactly where the urge to take care of her came from, why he felt compelled to help her even as he made a total fool of himself and even when he knew he couldn’t fully trust her.

They sat in the grass to watch as the football team ran drills, sit-ups followed by sprints. The fastest of the bunch, it was easy to see why Jack was the quarterback. It was a shame he wasn't in uniform, Gabriel thought. The basketball shorts and ratty t-shirt didn't show him off nearly as much as those tight pants would.

Jeez, since when did he start fantasizing about a jock? A male jock, at that.

It wasn't that Gabriel's mind had _never_ gone there before; he'd just never really lingered. He'd always preferred to envision a skinny eco-friendly hipster kind of guy riding his dick, not a dude who stood a solid chance of beating him at arm wrestling. Not a guy who might expect Gabriel to bottom at some point.

But even as he thought that, a thrill flickered through his loins, an unspoken curiosity.

You think you know yourself pretty well. And then you learn that several thousand other, older versions of you exist and know you better.

“You’re going to tell him, right?" He asked out of the blue. "You're going to tell your Gabriel Reyes that in every dimension, Jack and I are somehow involved?"

"If I ever make it back, yeah."

"Good. I mean, that has to mean _something_. And if we’re doomed to be stuck with each other, we might as well aim for, I dunno, a positive relationship. And don't talk like that -- you'll make it home. You've got a million me's helping you out."

His grin was so broad and genuine that a knot formed in Sombra's throat.

"That mean you're back on board?" She asked, trying to keep her tone light.

"Don't think I have much of a choice," he said, eyes following Jack as he zigged and zagged around his teammates.

"You know," she said, the picture of nonchalance. "It really would be irresponsible to help Talon travel through different dimensions. After all, it's taking me forever to get back. Wouldn't want some poor agent to get stranded." 

Gabriel whooped and threw his arms around her, nearly tackling her to the ground. Shocked, it took her a solid few seconds to return the hug. 

Jack glanced over at the noise and wasn't even sort of surprised it was Gabriel. They seemed stuck in each other's orbit. Which was apparently dangerous. Jack's head ached from trying to fully comprehend how and why. Just like it ached from trying to ascertain whether or not Vincent had really been justified in breaking up with him. So, he refocused on the scrims instead, letting the physical exertion leach all thoughts from his brain.

The afternoon died a quick death, the cloudy day diving headlong into evening. The yellow floodlights bordering the field popped on. 

The coaches and other players packed it up and called out goodbyes, but Jack just kept going. He brushed off Reinhardt's concern and returned to sprints, pushing himself until his thighs and arms were trembling. The chilly air set his lungs on fire, but he didn't stop. Couldn't. Didn't want to think about Vincent. Didn't want to think about Gabriel. Didn't want to think about destinies or dimensions. Didn't want to think at all.

His legs gave out not long after the moon crested the horizon, knees hitting the grass hard. He flopped onto his back and, eyes shut, listened to his breathing slow. Sweat cooled on his forehead and back, making him shiver.

Footsteps with a heavy tread approached him.

"Alright, Morrison. What's wrong?"

Jack cracked open an eyelid. Gabriel stood over him, face unreadable in the dark.

"Who says anything's wrong?" Jack rasped.

"Right. You just shred yourself to pieces for the sheer exuberance of it."

"Maybe I do. Whatever your sometimes-but-not-in-this-timeline daughter says, you don't actually know anything about me. Where'd she go, anyway?"

"Uh." Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "She's around somewhere. Were you stalking me?"

"Not intentionally. Spent last period on the balcony overlooking the court."

"Golden Boy cuts class and then has the audacity to say nothing's wrong."

"Please don't fucking call me that."

The raggedness of the request made Gabriel pause, curious.

Jack evidently had no intention and/or capability of moving any time soon, so Gabriel sat down at his side. He looked up at the moon, which was in an awkward in-between lumpy phase.

"So, again, I ask. What's wrong?"

Jack let out a long sigh.

“Vincent broke up with me.”

“Because I talked to you?”

“Because I’m shallow. All nice guy and no depth. Golden Boy, right? Even you think I’m a stereotype. The only reason you noticed I existed was because your techno fairy godmother from the future or whatever told you you had to.”

“No, I _thought_ you were a stereotype. All it took was one conversation to see that you’re not. And…yeah, maybe I wouldn’t have looked closer if Sombra hadn’t pushed me, but me judging you on appearance was me being stupid, not you."

"Speaking of you being stupid, you play basketball."

"Played," Gabriel scoffed.

"Why'd you stop? Lost touch with your tribal competitive urges?"

"Ha ha, no. I got pissed at the politics. I was one of the best on the team but barely got off the bench because kids with whinier, wealthier parents leaned on the coach. Good life lesson though. Competence on its own doesn't mean shit. What really matters is the packaging and the marketing."

"Sure." Jack slowly sat up and rested his elbows on his knees, eyes low. "And then one day, you realize that, without meaning to, you've bought into your own packaging. It's funny. I really do hate the Golden Boy image, but that's basically all I gave Vincent. My fun side. Because you get so used to being looked at as this perfect person that you start freaking out that they'll find out you're really not that. You figure that's the part of you that people care about."

"You hide behind the image and then you get stuck in it."

"First world problems, I know."

"So, tell me something un-Golden Boyish about yourself. Practice breaking the image."

Jack huffed and ran his hand over his face.

"Aren't you supposed to not be talking to me?"

"Sombra says she won't give that organization the ability to cross dimensions. I know it's dumb, but I trust her."

"That _is_ dumb. But so is me spilling my guts to you like I've known you forever, so."

"You aren't getting out of this." Gabriel poked Jack's side and he jolted, clearly ticklish. "Be un-Golden Boyish. Go."

"I can't think of anything."

"Sure, you can. What's something that you never told Vincent because you were worried about disappointing him?"

Jack's heart pounded even as he asked: "Does my crush on you count?"

Gabriel opened and closed his mouth.

"It, uh, might," he said with an embarrassed laugh. 

Face on fire, Jack was on the verge of racing away at full speed, but two things stopped him: his jellied legs and the small smile on Gabriel's face. Jack's stomach flipped. Was it possible...?

"Okay, you're going to have to say more than that, because my brain is getting way too far ahead of itself," Jack said in a rush.

"Why didn't you ever talk to me?"

"Didn't know if you were into guys. Figured I wasn't your type even if you were. And I don't know if you know this, but you've got a bit of a fuck-off vibe going for you."

"Spent years cultivating it, so I should hope so."

Gabriel's smile faded a bit. His fingers wound around each other and he kept his gaze on them.

Jack's anxiety crept up around him, wondering if he’d said something wrong. His thoughts returned to escape plans.

"I've never actually done anything with a guy," Gabriel admitted. "I mean, I want to -- well, I think I want to -- I, probably, yeah, with you. If you wanted. Which you said you did, because that's what a crush is, usually. But you don't have to or anything. Um. Sorry. I'll just stop talking."

Jack was grinning by this point. Gabriel may have been older and cooler, but when it came to flirting with boys, Jack clearly had the edge. He wet his lips and scooted closer, heart going a mile a minute.

"Well, it would be, uh, very un-Golden Boyish of me to kiss someone mere hours after being broken up with."

Gabriel met his eyes, his mouth tilting up into a smirk.

After a tentative moment, Jack leaned in. Their lips brushed, warm and gentle. The uncertainty melted, and their mouths slowly opened into one another's, the kiss deepening. Jack slid a hand up the side of Gabriel's neck, and Gabriel let himself be pulled closer. 

Gabriel’s mind blanked, assessing the new sensations: the feeling of hands as large and strong as his own, the musky smell of masculine sweat, the hard chest pressed against him. It was different than the softness found in girls. The low timber of Jack's groan, undeniably male, sent a hot shiver through him.

Fuck, he was really kissing a guy. Until that moment, Gabriel hadn't been 100% sure he was legitimately bisexual, but the lurch of heat behind his groin was answering that question in no uncertain terms.

Jack didn’t like the feel of the lip ring as much as he thought he would, if he was being honest. But he liked the lingering taste of smoke a lot _more_ than he thought he would, so it balanced out. That was all background chatter, however, and barely audible beneath his ecstatic disbelief that he was actually _kissing Gabriel Reyes_.

And that was when Sombra reappeared. 


	5. Chapter 5

“Eyyy, it’s working,” Sombra said cheerfully.

Gabriel and Jack jerked apart, blushing hard.

Sombra stood behind them like some undersea creature, glowing purple and surrounded by holographic windows. Gabriel swiped the back of his hand over his mouth as he climbed to his feet. Jack surreptitiously adjusted his basketball shorts before doing the same.

"You mean a fork appeared?" Gabriel coughed out.

"Sure did," Sombra chirped. "Dimensional gates are open. Looks like your little tête-à-tête was the trigger."

Eyes locked on a holographic control panel, she unhooked one of the two devices fastened to her belt. It came to life with a whine.

"Coordinates set. Heading to Dimension Gamma-673773."

"Is that your one?" Jack asked.

"Nope, but my sensors tell me I'm getting close. Can't be more than five hops away."

The device let out a crack and Sombra dismissed her windows. A gateway of purple pixels and a whirl of blue light split the air. Jack found himself gripping Gabriel's upper arm, awed and unnerved. Gabriel squinted at Sombra, silhouetted against the portal.

"It's been fun, chico," she said, tapping her forehead in a mock salute.

“Hey!" Gabriel called before she could step through. "Tell your Gabriel to reread  _The Mysteries of Udolpho_. He could use the reminder.”

Sombra threw a smile over her shoulder.

"I will."

With a last "Adios", she stepped into the ropey ether. In the milliseconds it took for the modified chronal accelerator to sync to the spiritual signature of Gabriel Reyes #673773, Sombra caught a brief glimpse of the fork whose momentum she was riding, a flash of lightning illuminating what came next along each prong.

In one timeline, Jack and Gabriel fail to connect emotionally; Gabriel goes to university on the other side of the country, majors in Sociology and meets his wife, who he has a daughter with; Jack opts to join the army instead of going to college and serves for several years before the Omnic Crisis breaks out; though Gabriel's marriage falls apart because of the demands of his leadership role in the Red Cross, he is crucial for coordinating disaster relief; Jack rockets up through the ranks, defending cities from Omnic attacks; they reunite unexpectedly during the bloodiest siege of the war, and their combined tactics for containing threats and safeguarding civilians are key to ending the conflict; while working alongside one another, they fall in love and begin a relationship--

In the other timeline, the one she just left, Jack and Gabriel stumble through the beginning of a relationship; Gabriel chooses to go to a college closer to home and Jack joins him a year later; Jack convinces Gabriel to major in Military & Strategic Studies with him and upon graduating, the two of them are accepted into the CIA; though their relationship breaks under the stress of their careers, their combined efforts succeed in detecting and managing the first stirrings of the Omnic Crisis, reducing the number of overall casualties by nearly half; years later, thanks to the CIA's aggressive custodianship of its employees' mental health, Jack and Gabriel end up in couples counseling and decide to give their relationship another try--

And then Sombra was gone.

Jack and Gabriel stared at the patch of grass where she'd stood a moment before, their eyes scrambling to adjust to the dark, their brains completely giving up on comprehending the physics of what just happened.

Gabriel chewed over what Sombra had said, that it was his and Jack's conversation that had caused the timeline to split. That meant in another world, either Gabriel didn’t approach Jack or Jack didn’t open up to him. Gabriel couldn’t help but feel sad for this other him, the person he'd been a breath away from being, who didn’t get the chance to kiss Jack tonight.

Away from Gabriel's body heat, the chilly evening settled over Jack, raising goosebumps. He glanced over and swallowed his disappointment at the distant, distracted look in Gabriel’s eyes, the way he was focused on where Sombra had made her exit.

"I get it, I guess," Jack said, rubbing his arm and looking away. "You basically _had_ to kiss me. If we didn't do anything, she'd have been stuck here. I mean, it's okay if you don't really like me or--"

"Jack? Shut up."

Gabriel was kissing him again and this time, there was no uncertainty. This time, there was insistence, hunger, enough to make Jack moan. He felt his heart boiling over, happy and horny and completely obsessed with the fact that Gabriel's tongue was stroking over his own.

Hands gripped Jack's hips and slid under his loose shirt, the skin-on-skin contact electrifying them both. Jack nearly put his arms around Gabriel's neck but remembered the shoulder spikes on his jacket at the last second, so settled for clutching his lapels. Jack pulled him as close as possible, soaking in the strength and warmth of him.

Fireworks went off in Gabriel's blood at the rigid weight of Jack's erection against his thigh, which his basketball shorts did nothing to hide. Keeping a hold on Jack's waist, Gabriel experimentally ground his leg forward. A jolt ran the length of Jack's body and he gasped against Gabriel's grinning mouth.

"Stop," Jack laughed, even as he leaned into the delicious pressure. "Stop. I need to shower."

"You blow your load already?"

"No, dumbass. But if this is going where I'm hoping it's going, then I'm damn well washing my balls first."

Gabriel snorted and caught Jack's lips again, rather liking the blend of mind-melting kisses and crass bro talk.

The 5-minute walk to the gymnasium took them nearly a quarter of an hour.

It was a very educational stroll. Gabriel learned that sucking Jack's earlobe sent his deep voice a few pitches higher, and it got breathier still when Gabriel flicked the tip of his tongue into Jack's ear. Jack discovered that Gabriel had a thing for being backed into walls (news to Gabriel, too). Liquid heat poured through his entire body when Jack pinned him by the shoulders and kissed him breathless.

Gabriel's jeans were distinctly uncomfortable by the time a swipe of Jack's school ID got them into the locked building.

"Man, they really trust you guys," Gabriel commented as they climbed the stairs, trying to sound casually amused instead of painfully aroused.

"Of course," Jack hummed. "We have to sign a form agreeing to obey all the rules under threat of expulsion from the team. No misuse of equipment. No drugs or alcohol on the premises. No girls in the locker room."

Jack shot him a cheeky smile as the door to the football team's locker room clicked open. It was cleaner and better maintained than the bigger ones the rest of the students used for gym class, Gabriel noted. They let a second go by, to confirm that they were in fact alone. And then Gabriel’s hands were back on Jack’s waist, Jack’s back was against the lockers, and Gabriel groaned as Jack dragged him forward by his belt loops.

Good God, the _friction_. Hardness against hardness. Yeah, maybe Gabriel could get used this.

Sick of the ratty t-shirt, Gabriel pulled it over Jack’s head, his mouth watering at the delicious smell of Jack’s sweat. Jack raised his eyebrows.

"Just helping you get ready for your shower," Gabriel said, raking his gaze over Jack’s flushed chest and flat stomach, wanting to devour him whole.

“Very considerate of y— ah!”

Jack’s head thumped against the metal as that scorching hot mouth bruised the crook of his neck, his pec, his nipple. Jack may not have been blown away by the feel of Gabriel's lip ring while they were kissing, but his opinion of it was rapidly improving as the metal trailed over his feverish skin.

A waspish buzzing cut through the air.

Gabriel sighed, pulled back with evident reluctance and dug in his jacket pocket for his phone.

“It’s my dad. Should probably tell him I’m not dead,” Gabriel said regretfully.

“Yeah,” Jack coughed out. “My, uh, mom’s probably freaking out, too.”

As Gabriel fended off his dad’s lengthy interrogation, Jack shoved his shirt inside his locker. Toeing off his cleats and socks, he frowned at the messages on his phone and dashed off a reply to his mom. Shy about undressing completely while Gabriel remained fully clothed, Jack grabbed his towel and headed towards the communal showers. He made it quick, soaped up and rinsed off and emerged with the towel tied around his waist.

Gabriel was leaning against the lockers, jacket off, still on the phone. His attention snapped to Jack instantly, his flagging erection reappearing with a vengeance. Jack flushed and returned to his locker, a tension in his upper back that wasn’t there before. Gabriel said whatever he had to to end the call.

”Sorry about that.”

”S’okay,” Jack mumbled, not turning around.

Gabriel floundered in the awkward silence, wondering if he’d just ruined everything, if Jack wanted him to leave.

“Vince texted me,” Jack sighed, flinging his phone back into the locker. “About getting his stuff back. Plus...some other things. Recommendations for how to not fuck up future relationships.”

Gabriel went from dread that Jack was about to get back together with his ex, to elation that he wasn’t, to fury that Vincent was listing Jack’s faults under the guise of ‘helping’ him. He hugged Jack from behind.

”Well, the representative from your future relationship says he can go fuck himself,” Gabriel growled.

Jack’s breathing hitched.

”You mean that?” He asked.

“We’re together in, like, a million dimensions,” Gabriel chuckled. “Would be pretty stupid to not check out why.”

”So, you’re doing this because you think it’s fate.”

”Dude, fate isn’t giving me this boner.” 

Jack swallowed as Gabriel’s groin slotted against his ass. 

“Don’t think it’s giving you yours either,” Gabriel continued, lips close to the sensitive shell of Jack’s ear.

His palms landed on Jack’s thighs, the touch burning straight through the damp towel.

"Thought you said you hadn’t done stuff with guys,” Jack exhaled.

He slowly arched into the hold, into the stiffness there, a smile tugging at his lips at the sounds it pulled out of Gabriel. 

“I’m a fast learner,” Gabriel said, voice tight. “Besides, think I know how the equipment works.”

They rocked into each other, the temperature of the room rising. The towel came loose and Jack automatically caught it, holding it in place. Sucking Jack’s earlobe into his mouth, Gabriel slowly inched it out of his grasp. Jack didn’t even try to resist, his senses melting as Gabriel tugged the lobe with his teeth. The towel peeled open with a pleasant shock of friction.

Gabriel froze at the sight of Jack's bobbing erection, reeling as he realized this was really happening. He was actually stripping another guy naked, on school property no less. Despite his bravado, for a moment Gabriel completely blanked on what he was meant to do. Fortunately, the wave of heat spreading through his body motivated him to move.

“ _Fuck,_ ” Jack gasped out as Gabriel’s warm hand closed around his balls.

“Very clean. Good job.”

“Shut up,” Jack snickered, enormously relieved that Gabriel hadn’t freaked out or bolted just now.

The angle made things easy for Gabriel, the motions familiar even if it wasn't his own dick he was trailing his fingers over. A sigh broke in Jack's throat as Gabriel thumbed the glistening bead of pre-cum and began stroking his length with long, slow pulls. He could tell by the way Jack's cock jumped in his grip and the trembling in his legs that he wasn't going to last very long. Gabriel ground harder into Jack's backside, unconsciously seeking relief, almost absurdly turned on by how responsive Jack was to his touch.

Jack braced himself on the lockers, dazed, hardly able to believe that the guy he'd been lusting after for so long was actually jerking him off. He whined, low and ragged, as Gabriel sped up and launched him towards his finish. His mouth fell open and his pulse galloped. Within a minute, he went silent and rigid, his hand flying down to still Gabriel's as his whole body spasmed.

Breathing harshly against Jack's shoulder, Gabriel watched with relish as sticky ropes of semen splattered against the metal.

"Fuck," Jack gasped again, drained and satisfied.

After a drowsy moment, he kicked the towel on the floor to catch the drips before turning to push Gabriel backwards.

“He said I was a goody-two-shoes," Jack hissed, eyes glinting as he shoved Gabriel down to sit on the bench. “That I never do anything that might get me in trouble.”

Heat scalded Gabriel's cheeks as Jack unbuckled his belt, undid his jeans and, with zero hesitation, maneuvered his achingly erect cock out of his briefs.

“I get the feeling he didn’t know you all that well,” Gabriel said, breaths fast. “I mean, someone could catch us at any moment.”

Jack smirked, wrapped a hand around Gabriel’s shaft and licked the head, sloppy and wet. Gabriel moaned, his eyes shutting in bliss. Strong arms pinned his thighs, again reminding Gabriel that it was 100% a guy doing this to him. 

While his tongue teased mercilessly over the sensitive crown of Gabriel’s dick, Jack’s grip twisted and pulled, slippery with spit.

And Gabriel learned what many, many other Gabriel Reyeses had learned: that _nothing_  was hotter than having everyone’s golden idol, Jack Morrison, naked and enthusiastic and between his legs. 

"Slow down," Gabriel gasped out, cupping the side of Jack’s neck. "Gonna cum if you keep that up."

"Gabriel Reyes, I have been fantasizing about you cumming in my mouth for nearly three years. If you think you're going to deny me now..."

Jack sucked Gabriel's cock back into his mouth with enough pressure that Gabriel's hips punched forward of their own accord.

"Jesus Christ," Gabriel gasped out, laughing, hands scrabbling over Jack's shoulders. “Okay. Whatever you want, babe.”

Jack hummed, thrilled at the endearment, and bobbed his head, taking Gabriel in further, slurping and licking and hollowing his cheeks, until Gabriel cried out. Silky warmth puddled thick on Jack’s tongue, and Jack thought if he died tomorrow, he’d have no regrets.

A few minutes later, the two of them stepped back out into the cool night, fully dressed and with a hastily cleaned locker room behind them.

Jack fiddled with his car keys, feeling so much and unsure how to say any of it. So much had changed in one day.

"What was it you told Sombra to tell the other you to reread?” He asked. “ _The Mysteries of_...?”

” _Udolpho_ ,” Gabriel said, embarrassed. “It’s an old book. Dumb, sappy Gothic lit with a creepy castle and true love winning out. No one’s read it.”

“If I offer to drive you home, will you tell me about it?”

“Sure,” Gabriel said with a soft smile. “As long as we pick up burgers or something on the way.”

”Was thinking the exact same thing.”

”It’s almost like we’re meant to be.”

”If your definition of ‘meant to be’ is us both wanting food after sex, uh, you‘re going to have a lot of soulmates out there,” Jack scoffed.

"True.” Gabriel grinned. “But between the best blowjob I’ve ever had and a free ride home, I think I’ll stick with you.”

”You’re an ass.”

”You love it.”

”Yeah,” Jack murmured, pulling Gabriel in for another kiss, because he wanted to and now he could. “I just might.”

 

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed! Any kudos or comments are much appreciated (づ￣ ³￣)づ


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